Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
4/10/2015
A Russian delegate told the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) on April 7 that the United States deployment of a global missile defense system destroys disarmament prospects. The words from the delegate, Olga Kuznetsova, come during a time when diplomats and nonproliferation advocates have decried the slow progress on nuclear disarmament, and the statement is the latest in a string of back-and-forths between the U.S. and Russia accusing each other of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987.
The treaty prohibits the development of conventional and nuclear cruise missiles capable of hitting ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Russia has asserted U.S. testing of its Aegis Ashore missile defense capability is an INF violation. Speaking at a conference last month, Jon Wolfsthal, Senior Director for Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the National Security Council, said because the testing involves a defensive capability, it is allowable under the treaty.
Russians don’t believe U.S. claims that U.S. missile defenses are not aimed at their country, Joe Cirincione, member of the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) and Ploughshares Fund President, said April 8 during a panel at the Conference on World Affairs at Colorado University. “They think this is part of the aggressive nature of the Western system … and that this is really aimed at neutralizing a heavy part of the Russian nuclear force,” he said, and Moscow has used U.S. missile defenses to justify nuclear warhead and ballistic missile modernization, even though the Kremlin “clearly cannot afford” it.
In a report released last year, ISAB recommended the U.S. work to uphold the treaty, despite Russia’s violation, and Cirincione emphasized those sentiments during his address. Russia “tested a cruise missile that exceeded the range allowed by the treaty, and so some conservatives have used this as an example, and say, ‘The Russians are cheating; we should pull out of this treaty; we should reintroduce nuclear weapons into Europe,’ ” Cirincione said. “ ‘No,’ said the International Security Advisory Board. … Don’t think that this is the way to respond, that we have to meet their invasion with some provocative military move of our own.”
Will for Disarmament Fading?
More than anything, a lack of political will of Member States to the UNDC has hampered progress toward a world without nuclear weapons, many delegates agreed during the April 7 UNDC meeting. According to a UN press release, several diplomats agreed that the Commission’s recent difficulties relate less to inherent problems of the disarmament machinery and more to the intentions of some Member States. Pakistani representative Maleeha Lodhi said the disarmament structure was not immune to the “gloomy advent of new cold wars,” expressing concern that some nuclear-weapon states were neither willing to abandon their large inventories of and modernization programs for nuclear weapons, even as they pursued nonproliferation with “messianic zeal,” according to the release. But Indian delegate Venkatesh Varma said current nuclear realities have bolstered the commission’s significance.
‘Realistic, Achievable’ Objectives
U.S. representative John Bravaco said he looks forward to working with all states at the once-every-five-years Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference (RevCon) starting later this month to advance “realistic, achievable” objectives for disarmament, according to the release. Bravaco also said the U.S. seeks the immediate start of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, with the Conference on Disarmament as its preferred venue. He also encouraged other states to adopt a moratorium on fissile material production, a policy the U.S. currently holds.
‘I Have Never Seen a Wider Divide’
UNDC convened at UN Headquarters in New York on April 6, and is scheduled to meet through April 24. Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, wrote in an April 6 statement to UNDC that it should find a way to bridge the gap between states that support a “step-by-step,” long-term, open-ended approach to nuclear disarmament and the overwhelming majority of NPT parties that don’t view the 2010 RevCon Action Plan as a flexible blueprint and instead demand concrete evidence that binding treaty commitments are fulfilled. “The prospects for further nuclear arms reductions are dim and we may even be witnessing a roll-back of the hard-won disarmament gains of the last twenty-five years,” Kane stated. “I have never seen a wider divide between nuclear haves and nuclear have-nots over the scale and pace of nuclear disarmament. This schism is reflected here in the Commission and continues to act as a significant brake on forward movement.”
Commission Agrees on Work Program after Two Days
After two days of deliberations, the UNDC agreed on a work program focusing on recommendations for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation and on practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons. Japanese delegate Fyo Fukahori said inclusive discussions on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use should steer both nuclear- and non-nuclear-weapon states toward eradicating nuclear weapons. U.S. State Department officials in December attended the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons two months after Amb. Robert Wood, U.S. Special Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, said certain groups’ efforts to move nuclear disarmament discussions into “international humanitarian law circles” could distract from the disarmament process.
However, Wood also said the U.S. “understands the sincere motivations” behind efforts to address the weapons’ humanitarian impacts. Representing the non-aligned movement at the UNDC meeting, Indonesian delegate Desra Percaya said all nuclear-weapon states should provide “universal, unconditional, non-discriminatory and legally binding security measures,” against the use or threat of use of those weapons “under all circumstances,” the release states. “While the chasm between positions can seem wide, it is your duty to bridge it,” an April 6 release quotes Kane as saying. “Make this your legacy.”
